PHOENIX (AP) — A former Phoenix politician already in prison on a six-year sentence for operating an illegal adoption scheme involving women from the Marshall Islands was ordered to serve another five years behind bars for defrauding Arizona’s Medicaid system in a scam to get taxpayer-funded health coverage for the birth mothers. Paul Petersen, a Republican who was Maricopa County’s elected assessor for six years and worked as an adoption attorney, on Friday received the second of three sentences. His five-year Arizona punishment is to be served after he completes his six-year federal sentence in Arkansas. No sentencing date has been scheduled for Petersen’s convictions in Utah.
